explaining_errors_in_star_trekfandomcom-20200215-history
Little Green Men
' |image= |series= |production=40510-480 |producer(s)= |story= Toni Marberry and Jack Treviño |script= Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe |director= James L. Conway |imdbref=tt0708565 |guests=Max Grodénchik as Rom, Aron Eisenberg as Nog, Megan Gallagher as Nurse Garland, Charles Napier as Denning, Conor O'Farrell as Carlson and James G. MacDonald as Wainwright |previous_production=Starship Down |next_production=The Sword of Kahless |episode=DS9 S04E07 |airdate= 13 November. 1995 |previous_release=Starship Down |next_release=(DS9) The Sword of Kahless (Overall) Maneuvers |story_date(s)=Unknown (2372/1947) |previous_story=(DS9) Rejoined (Overall) Persistence of Vision |next_story=(DS9) Starship Down (Overall) Tattoo }} Summary After a long-promised shuttle arrives from his cousin Gaila, Quark decides to transport Nog to Earth so the young male can enter Starfleet Academy. All is not as it seems, however. Rom soon discovers Quark is smuggling kemacite—an unstable, contraband substance. Rom also discovers that cousin Gaila rigged the shuttle to lock itself into warp. When it threatens to fly itself apart, Rom ignites the kemacite in the hold. The resulting inversion wave not only knocks the craft out of warp but also throws the shuttle back to the year A.D. 1947, where it crashlands near Roswell, New Mexico. The three Ferengi awake at a U.S. military base. Once Rom fixes an initial glitch in their Universal Translators, Quark seizes the profit potential. He proposes to sell twenty-fourth-century technology to twentieth-century Earth. He intends to take over the planet and then supply the Ferengi home world with warp technology centuries ahead of its time. Unfortunately, the U.S. military personnel see only the danger of invasion and begin torturing Quark for information. Thankfully, a kindly professor and his fiancée nurse intervene. They help the three Ferengi and stowaway Odo return to Quark's shuttle, where Rom uses the power of an atomic bomb test to fly everyone back to the twenty-fourth century. Errors and Explanations Plot Oversights # From the sounds of it at the beginning of this episode, Nog has made it into Starfleet Academy. That's pretty astonishing, given the trouble Wesley Crusher had in Coming of Age when he competed against four other topflight candidates for one entry slot and lost! (I suspect quotas at work here.) Starfleet may have had lower expectations about Nog. # At one point Quark speaks of selling his shuttle to the Ferengi home world so they will have warp drive centuries before the humans, Klingons, or even Vulcans. In other words, Vulcan didn't have warp drive prior to 1947? Hmmm. According to The Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Romulans left Vulcan "over a thousand years ago." Now, even if those words refer to the time frame of the 24th century, that still means the Romulans left Vulcan sometime in the 14th century—about six hundred years before A.D. 1947! If Vulcan didn't have warp drive yet, it was a very long trip! (It would take at least four and one-half years for humans to get to their closest neigh- boring star system without warp drive!) The Romulan’s Vulcan ancestors could have used generational ships. # Of course, one might muse that if this plan for selling the Ferengi home world warp technology is so great, why hasn't someone in the Ferengi Alliance whipped around the sun as Kirk and crew did in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home? Don't the Ferengi know about this method of time travel? That method may have been deemed unprofitable! # When the president orders the general in charge of the operation to get more information from Quark and company, Captain Wainwright takes them to a room for questioning. Eventually Nog comes up with a plan to help himself, his father, and his uncle escape. He tells Wainwright that a fleet of three hundred Marauder-class attack cruisers orbits the planet and soon will drop their cloaks. Then this fleet will begin transporting Klingon shock troops to the surface. Wainwright seems convinced that this is the truth and allows Nog to indicate on a large wall map where the first assault will take place. Nog then elbows Wainwright in the stomach and attempts to take his gun, but a guard intervenes. That's when the kindly professor and his nurse fiancée come to the rescue. Interestingly enough, at the end of the episode, Wainwright seems to forget Nog's fabrication about the invasion fleet. He stands beside the general as Quark's Treasure takes off for parts unknown and says nary a word. (One would think such information would be vital to national security.) He probably realised it was a ruse, in order for Nog to try and grab a weapon. # Quark finally goes to jail on charges of kemacite smuggling. Of course, he's out of jail in the very next episode. (And in case you're thinking, "But Quark said all the kemacite was destroyed, so there's no evidence," I remind you that Odo was there every time the kemacite was discussed in the shuttle. At the very least, his testimony on the use of the kemacite remains to return to the twenty-fourth century should be enough to get a conviction.) The judicial authorities might insist on physical evidence to back up the testimony, especially given the known friction between Odo and Quark in the past. Changed Premises # Rom's amazing transformation into a technological whiz kid reaches completion in this episode. All of a sudden he can spout technobabble with the best of them. Not only that, he also figures out how to leap four hundred years into the future using a damaged shuttle, a primitive atomic bomb, the last dredges of kemacite, some twine, a bit of baling wire, and a wad of bubble gum! All this from a guy Odo describes in Babel as an idiot who couldn't fix a straw that was bent. (Okay, okay. I was exaggerating about the twine, baling wire, and gum.) Rom was obviously pretending to be an idiot. Continuity and Production Problems # Trying to extract information from Quark, mean old Captain Wainwright has the kindly professor's nurse fiancée administer sodium pentothal to Quark. Coming back from a commercial, we see her stick the needle in Quark's arm. Note that the syringe has markings, on the side that faces the back of her hand, to show the amount of dosage. The camera pans up to show Quark screaming and then pulls back as the kindly professor's nurse fiancée raises the empty syringe. Note that the markings to show the dosage amount have disappeared! There're two possible explanations for this: The syringe she stuck in Quark's arm isn't the same one she pretends to pull out; or, while the syringe was in Quark's arm, she twisted it around so the marking faced the other way! (No wonder Quark is screaming!) Maybe sodium pentothal triggers a slight allergic and/or acidic reaction in Ferengi DNA! Nit Central # Joe Pintar on Monday, May 17, 1999 - 12:08 pm: Never cared much for this episode. Always thought it squandered its potential. For example, since they are in 1947, why don't Quark and the others buy real estate that will be popular in the future. Places like where Dodger Stadium and Candlestick Park will be (since they have heard about baseball from Sisko, this isn't far fetched).The owners of those sites may not be willing to sell. # When trying to sell technology to the Hu-Mans, Quark says that gold is acceptable, but in Who Mourns for Morn?, he says that gold is worthless. Lea Frost on Tuesday, August 08, 2000 - 12:52 pm: Yeah, but it's really valuable on Earth in the 20th-century, and that's where he is at the moment -- I'm sure he'd be willing to deal in the valid currency... Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine